King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road
Giddings, Lee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
King's Highway - Camino Real - Old San Antonio Road. Marked by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas A. D. 1918
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This marker commemorates the King's Highway, or El Camino Real — the Old San Antonio Road — the historic overland route that Spanish colonial authorities developed to link their missions, presidios, and settlements across Texas. Long a lifeline for soldiers, priests, and travelers, the road was formally memorialized here by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the State of Texas in 1918.
Why it matters
El Camino Real was the backbone of Spanish colonial Texas, shaping where towns, missions, and later highways would rise across the region.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Camino Real
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The Camino Real, or Old San Antonio Road, was the great artery of early Texas, tracing ancient Indian and buffalo trails and echoing the 1691 route of Spanish padres. Stretching roughly a thousand miles from Saltillo in Mexico into Louisiana, it carried explorers, traders, soldiers, and settlers for generations before it was surveyed around 1800 as the "King's Highway." Here it also marked the boundary between the early colonies of Stephen F. Austin and Sterling C. Robertson.
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